books

Natalie Babbitt, the 84-year-old author of the popular children's novel "Tuck Everlasting," died Monday at her home in Hamden, Connecticut.

The novel left a big mark on young readers. It tells the story of a magical spring that grants eternal life to anyone who drinks from it – and a girl who has to decide whether to live forever or accept her eventual death. Babbitt told NPR’s Melissa Block last year that she decided to write "Tuck Everlasting" in 1975 after she realized her 4-year-old daughter was terrified of death.

In this month’s Artscape, RI Public Radio’s Scott MacKay speaks with Rhode Island author Rosemary Mahoney. Mahoney spent time in India and Tibet volunteering at a school for the blind. Her new book about that experience is entitled `For the Benefit of Those Who See: Dispatches from the World of the Blind.’